A raft of measures have been announced to strengthen ties with the south east Asian bloc. Leaders at the summit have released a joint statement recognising the benefits of peace in the south China sea.
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00:00 Well, I think there are a couple of key take-outs. First of all, there is a restatement of the
00:09 importance of the Australian relationship with ASEAN and vice versa, with ASEAN as an
00:15 institution and individual states, with some of the increasingly shared priorities on the
00:21 security front, in particular people-to-people links, and the rather perhaps fresh and new
00:26 element which is a greater and deeper economic engagement, which I think everyone agrees
00:33 has been rather underdone given the very fast growth of the South East Asian economies,
00:38 second fastest growing region in the world, where Australia really is not tapping into
00:43 the opportunities that are very self-evident now. And bringing the economic imperatives
00:48 together with the security to really develop a far more integrated relationship between
00:54 Australia and its immediate region, its hinterland, which after all is its geographic destiny
00:59 as well as its security and increasingly its economic destiny.
01:03 And so the first point you mentioned was the restatement of the importance of the relationship
01:08 to the average person that might not seem that significant, just a restatement. Why
01:14 do you point that out?
01:16 Look, I think the, well first of all, an anniversary, like a golden anniversary, is always an important
01:22 milestone and even though we don't hear a great deal about South East Asia, at least
01:28 in day-to-day news, it has been a relationship that's developed over time with a lot of cooperation
01:34 in defence, in maritime security, in other areas, which is worth celebrating and highlighting.
01:41 But also in changed geostrategic circumstances, we are in a completely different world now
01:46 to the world in which the relationship was first created 50 years ago, a far more complex
01:52 geostrategically tense world. Asia or ASEAN countries are at the epicentre of the so-called
01:57 Indo-Pacific region, both geographically but also in terms of being right at the coalface
02:03 of the growing US-China strategic competition. And how do we work together to make sure that
02:10 they can thrive and continue their extraordinary economic development and be part of that story?
02:17 And talking about that strategic tension, apparently with the South China Sea, Australia
02:22 went into this meeting hoping that Communique would speak more strongly about the importance
02:28 of peace in the South China Sea. The final wording was watered down pretty significantly
02:34 from what Australia wanted. What does that reflect?
02:36 Look, I think it just reflects a general caution about not being too strident on these matters,
02:41 while insisting, of course, on the importance of international law and of the need to resolve
02:47 these issues peacefully. ASEAN has made it quite plain to Australia in the past and continues
02:52 to do so, that it doesn't want to be in a position to choose or pick sides or very publicly
02:58 lay blame one way or the other. That's not the ASEAN way. The ASEAN way is for negotiation,
03:04 discussion, to try and resolve these by peaceful means. But I think it's also important to
03:09 note that the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the rule of law,
03:15 including international law, has been maintained.
03:18 And Australia's big announcement through this was that $2 billion fund to support and boost
03:23 investment from Australia into South East Asia and vice versa. What did you make of
03:28 the significance of that? And can Anthony Albanese point to this summit as a success?
03:34 Look, I think this is a really important point to make. The big new element in all of this
03:40 has been highlighted in the Moore report, the Economic Strategy 2040. And the $2 billion
03:48 fund is a signal of important intent by the government. But government has set the framework
03:53 now. Government has been quite plain about the importance it attaches to greater economic
03:59 cooperation. The real gap here is business. Business really needs to step up. Australian
04:06 business has not accustomed in the past to taking much risk. We've relied on extractive
04:14 industries, on agribusiness, but we now have an extraordinary services sector that matches
04:19 the needs of South East Asia. So there has to be a step up, including from our large
04:25 super funds and the funds under management, to really take advantage of those opportunities.
04:30 I'd like to recall a fact which is quite startling, is that New Zealand invests more in South
04:36 East Asia than Australia does. That is just, that's something that can't be right given
04:43 the size of our economy, the diversity of our economy and many of the complementarities
04:47 that now exist in the digital economy, in health, in infrastructure, in new energy,
04:53 all the areas that are very important for South East Asia, for it to develop and to
04:57 build up its middle class.
04:59 And taking that New Zealand stat into account, I hadn't heard that before, it is quite striking.
05:04 What do you believe is the adequacy of what the Australian government announced as part
05:09 of this summit?
05:10 I think the Australian government has really set the tone. But we can't, we're inclined
05:16 in Australia to always rely on the government to everything, but there's a bit of, you know,
05:19 government and business saying after you, no please after you, no please after you.
05:23 That kind of game has to stop and there has to now be a very strong and determined joint
05:28 approach. This is a good start. But as I say, you know, at AsiaLink we have long said that
05:34 the big missed opportunities in deepening relationships has been that business engagement.
05:39 We do a lot of work in this area. The other area that we also think there's a large gap
05:44 where government doesn't do, cannot do all the work is that the people to people links,
05:48 the university to university links, the building and understanding of the opportunities of
05:54 the South East Asian diaspora, but also really building longer term links across all of our
06:02 community and our society, teaching curriculum in schools that helps us understand the history,
06:09 the cultures, the political economies of the region, because this is where our future lies
06:14 and this is where we need to train the next generation of people to be engaged with and
06:17 to have a very deep understanding of. And we at AsiaLink have been evangelists for that
06:21 since the 90s. There's a lot of work still to be done.
06:24 And so what industry sectors do you think show great promise in South East Asia for
06:29 Australia to get into?
06:31 Well there is the whole sort of suite of energy transition challenges. South East Asia faces
06:38 similar challenges to us, that there is a lot of industry that's tied to traditional
06:42 energy sources. How do you make that transition without causing economic harm or deprivation
06:47 to the people? There is a whole area in the development of the digital economy which is
06:53 completely underdone, which has huge areas of opportunity. There's also still the Australian
07:01 expertise in services associated with a highly sophisticated mining industry. There's food
07:09 security and then there's of course health, superannuation systems. There's all this kind
07:16 of, these areas where South East Asia's need and interest, a need for good examples and
07:24 models and collaboration presents great opportunities for an Australian economy and expertise that
07:31 will also increasingly need to focus in those areas rather than just relying on mining and
07:35 agriculture.
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